Print
E-Mail
tool name
closeGig Harbor woman wins laptop in library raffle
Card drive, amnesty program brings many newcomers
Susan Schell
of the Gateway
When Marie Bassett received a phone call from the Pierce County Library System telling her she had won a free laptop computer, she first thought it was a hoax.
Bassett filled out a little piece of paper when she renewed her library card a while back, but she had forgotten about it.
The countywide library system held a raffle for two laptops during its annual card drive, and Gig Harbor’s Bassett won one of them.
“It was a funny story,” she said. “I went to have my library card renewed, and they had me fill out this little slip of paper. I said, ‘What do you want me to do with this?’ ”
Bassett said she regularly checks out items at the library with her husband, and she decided to get her own card updated.
“I thought, ‘That’s dumb. I might want to go without him some time,’ ” she said. “It’s ironic, because I’m really a raffle nut, but I had totally forgotten I had filled out this slip.”
Winning the laptop turned out to be perfect timing for Bassett, who recently lost her job.
“It was a heartbreaker,” she said. “It was truly a dream job. I thought I was going to be there forever.”
Nonetheless, Bassett hopes to turn bad luck around.
“Now I think I want to start my own bookkeeping business,” she said. “This laptop is so timely.”
The library system also came out a winner during its third annual card drive. The system welcomed 8,117 new cardholders and saw a 14 percent increase in visits between October 2008 and last month, said Mary Getchell, the library system’s communications director.
During the same time frame, the system also noted an increase of 24 percent in items checked out, Getchell said.
“It was a great success,” she said. “We welcome these new customers, and they checked out a lot more items.”
The library’s first amnesty program also was dubbed a success. The program allowed people who had outstanding items and certain fees to return the items with a clean slate.
The goal was to get people with late fees back into the system, Getchell said.
“We’re confident that the amnesty did what we wanted it to,” she said. “It brought people back to the library. Some people were in tears, they were so thankful. The majority of those people owed less than $10.”
If library patrons had lost the items they checked out, the amnesty program allowed them to bring in a similar item as a replacement.
“We received about $19,000 (in value) for books,” Getchell said. “And about $972 for other items.
“The response was phenomenal.”